


Dyad Undone

by RissWrites



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-04-21 08:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22058410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RissWrites/pseuds/RissWrites
Summary: >>Set right after The Rise of Skywalker - CONTAINS SPOILERS<<As the celebrations die down and her grief sets in, Rey is faced with locked memories - and they might just be the key she needs...
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. Unraveling

**Author's Note:**

> "Unraveling" will be a 3-5 part 'prologue' of sorts that helps set up the plot. After that, chapters released will be longer.

The mood was still high nearly a week after the Battle of Exogol. There was no reason for it not to be. People happily moved about their work, most of which involved packing up ships; multiple people were either returning to their respective homes or planning on starting one, finally seeing an opportunity to settle down with the Final Order gone from their lives. Even the Resistance Core - those who knew that there would always be trouble brewing in the galaxies and had decided to continue on the Resistance’s legacy - were getting ready to move to a new base, a generous gift from allies happy allies. 

But as the week wore on, Rey found it harder and harder to keep up with the smiles and the energy of everyone else. Finding ways to excuse herself when people asked for her version of events was becoming exhausting. But staying in her chamber only made it harder not to think about everything. The thoughts that she didn’t want to think about tugged at her mind even more when she was alone.

Even meditation was out of the question. The one time she had tried it, the sheer amount of loneliness that instantly rushed in terrified her. That was when she truly realized how deep the Force Bond had run, and how awfully alone she now felt, even surrounded by all the others. But she refused to think about that. Refused to remember Ben’s figure fading away in front of her.

Instead, she had put all of her energy into reaching Tatooine to bury Luke and Leia’s sabers, and now that she was back, she focused on lifting boxes for people, and wishing them farewell as they took off. They had all promised to keep in touch, and swore to return should the Resistance ever need them, but the hope was that they probably wouldn’t be seeing each other for a long time. 

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Rey unsteadily sat down on a crate, feeling like a full day’s worth of exertion might’ve been a bit too much for her still-healing body. Poe soon appeared beside her, clapping her on the shoulder. 

“Thanks for all your help today. People really appreciate it,” he said.

Rey watched the last couple of planes take off for the day. “It’s been nice to be able to keep myself so busy.” She sensed Poe shift uneasily beside her, searching for how he wanted to approach the topic that she knew was coming.

“You got back late,” he finally said.

“What do you mean?”

“You know… from Exogol.” He looked pointedly directly in her eyes. “The celebrations had been in full swing for awhile by the time you got back.”

“What, you think it was easy to get out of the throne room with my injuries?” She steadily returned his gaze, hoping he hadn’t somehow seen the medical records that contained the truth about how surprisingly unhurt she was, despite how she had appeared upon arriving back. She certainly still had a long way to go before she would be fully healed, but she could’ve had it much worse. She _had_ had it much worse. But she stopped herself from remembering who was responsible for fixing that.

“Rey,” Poe began again, “What hap-”

“Rey!” Finn shouted, interrupting, “I think… I think I broke it,” he said as he reached them and doubled over, out of breath, before handing her her lightsaber. “It won’t turn on.”

As she began to use the force to mentally feel her way through the saber’s components, searching for the issue, she absentmindedly wondered if Finn had run all the way back from out beyond the far end of the her old training course, where she had set up stone pillars and crude stuffed dummies for him to practice on. 

It had been somewhat difficult to get him to tell her what it was that he had tried to say in the sinking sands; eventually, when she jokingly claimed that she would have to use the Force on him if he didn’t spit it out, he admitted that he thought he was Force sensitive.

Although it had initially surprised her, it quickly made sense to her, and the things later he told her that he felt - sensed - seemed to confirm it. She wondered why it had been so hard for him to admit it when they weren’t in life-or-death situations, but then sensed fragments of his thoughts about being an ex-Stormtrooper and how he also wasn’t sure if she, being a Jedi and all, would even be all that impressed at someone who is only sensitive, and decided to leave that issue be.

“The kyber crystal’s focuser is off,” Rey said once she found the problem, “so it’s not broken, and it’s my fault for being distracted when I put it back together yesterday, not yours.” Although Finn would be unable to do half of what she could, Rey was more than happy to help teach him how to wield a lightsaber, and had spent the previous evening showing him the various components that made up her own. She was admittedly a little nervous that he would hurt himself out in the training area when she wasn’t there to help, but seeing how his tension seemed to ease when he held the saber, and how his focus and senses seemed to sharpen, she let him go.

“It’s unlike you to be distracted like that,” Poe said, as if to make a point.

But Rey stood up, ignoring it. “I’ll go reassemble it properly,” she said to Finn before quickly vanishing behind Resistance doors.

She strided down the halls, moving towards her chambers. She tried to walk with a purpose, hoping anyone who saw her would leave her be. But she saw nobody. So many people had left, and most of the others had already retired with the sun.

Sitting down at her desk, she took the lightsaber apart quickly and efficiently. But her attention broke immediately every time she tried to concentrate to put it back together with the Force. The banished thoughts were there, right on the edge of her mind. If she was going to put it back together, she was going to have to face them, and the thought of doing so terrified her.

She hesitated. Letting out a deep breath and closing her eyes, she tried to calm down her thumping heart. All was quiet on the outside, but internally her thoughts were chaotic, although she refused to let them still lest they stopped on one of the many things that she was determined to _not_ think of.

A knock at the door startled her, despite how soft it was. Rey called for whoever it was to come in. Maz entered, and Rey disliked the knowing look in her eyes. She didn’t feel like listening to advice, even though she knew that Maz was always wise with the advice she told. 

“What do you want?” Rey said, then winced at her own tone. She still occasionally found herself being a bit more brash than usual, ever since she had realized her family heritage. Her own darker tones were something that she was still learning to cope with.

“You have connections with the Dark Side,” Maz said, as if reading her mind. “You’ve largely accepted who your grandfather was, and you’re doing well moving on from that, Rey Skywalker.” She patted Rey’s hand comfortingly. “You should be proud. You’ve made everyone here so.”

Rey smiled slightly at her words. She didn’t feel proud, but she certainly had made progress coming to terms with being a Palpatine..

“But then, you also have a connection to the Dark through Kylo Ren.”

Rey turned away at the sound of his name. She could still feel Maz’s eyes on her.

Then Maz sighed. “I won’t ask you what happened - I know you get enough of that pressure from others. But listen to me,” she said, pulling on Rey’s arm and forcing her to turn and look at Maz, “You need to come to accept whatever happened there, too.”

Rey fought back tears, feeling slight deja vu, remembering how she had cried when Maz had given her other hard truths back on Takodana. 

“There’s great sadness in you, child,” Maz continued. “Ignoring it won’t make it go away.”

Rey gazed down at her hands as Maz turned to leave.

“Oh, and one other thing.” Maz had paused in the doorway, but didn’t turn around. “No one’s ever really gone. Remember that.”

And then Rey was alone once more.


	2. Unraveling (2)

Rey looked at the lightsaber parts scattered across her desk and sighed. But, deciding that Maz was probably right, she shifted to sit more comfortably and, determination rising within her, felt the flow of the Force within her.

Eyes closed, she couldn’t see, and yet in a way she could. It was dark, but the saber pieces that she began lifting with the Force seemed to still be visible in front of her. It started to come together. One piece after the next slid, clicked, turned, screwed, or clasped with the previous. She didn’t know the steps so much as she felt them. But she wasn’t impervious to the shadow that seemed to be forming in front of her, beyond the lightsaber parts. It was darker, somehow, than the darkness everywhere else around her. 

Her progress slowed, then stalled as the figure formed further.

Ben?

Something seemed to jolt sharply through her, causing her to jump up, knocking her seat away from her. The almost completed saber dropped onto a grey-blue ground. Looking at it, Rey realized it was Luke’s. Leia’s saber lay off to the side. A way in front of her lay Palpatine’s still body.

She couldn’t move. She felt numb, stunned to be back in this foul place. Even her eyes seemed to lock in place. Her entire body was wracked in a hurt so intense that she couldn’t feel the pain. And she realized that she was dying again. Reliving her final moments.

As if in slow motion, the world seemed to dip and sway. Her knees buckled, and her body began to crumple as she collapsed where she stood. It was easy to fall. She felt weightless as her eyes rolled back.

But then came the pressure. The pressure of rising; something holding and lifting her into a more horizontal position. She tried to open her eyes, but sudden daylight made it difficult. She barely managed to make out Kylo Ren’s mask above her.

_Takodana_. Her initial kidnapping. Ren was boarding his ship, her in his arms. Blaster fire sounded in the distance.

She relaxed into him, tired, eyes heavy - only to be jabbed in the shoulder.

“Oww!” She complained, instinctively sitting up. It took her a moment to regain her senses.

The lush green hills of Ahch-To sprawled before her. Luke stood in front of the stone wall where she sat, giving her his best grumpy-mentor look. Neither of them said anything for a minute.

“Are you just going to sit there?” Luke finally asked.

Rey blinked. “Oh, I was…” She shook her head, trying to collect her thoughts. “I was waiting for the scene to change again.”

Luke rolled his eyes before turning and stalking off, clearly expecting her to follow. She stumbled after him, deja vu tugging at her. They climbed in silence for awhile, until they reached a high point where much of the island could be seen spread out beneath them. She spotted Kylo’s burnt Tie Silencer. 

“What happened?”

Rey involuntarily flinched, a reaction ingrained in her from hearing it asked so often. Luke turned and looked hard at her, but she looked away.

“I’m sure you already know,” she said.

Luke shrugged. “Sure, from a third party perspective. But I’d like to hear it from you, Rey.” She didn’t reply, so he added, “I’d like to hear it from you almost as much as you need to accept it for yourself.”

Rey clenched her fists, trying to dispel her unease. “I… died,” she eventually began. “Ben saved me, and…” she trailed off. Silence stretched on for some time before she managed to choke out, “Ben died so that I could live”.

“Too broad,” Luke said, carefully sitting down on a wall as Rey continued to gaze out across the ocean. “Explain more.”

Rey swallowed. _I need to do this_, she thought. _It’s about time I do this._

“He healed me,” she said softly. “Transferred the rest of his life fo-”

“No, no, not that!” Luke shook his head while waving a hand back and forth. 

Rey turned towards him, stunned. 

“I don’t care about all that,” Luke said.

“Then _what_, Luke?!” Rey exclaimed, frustration and sadness overflowing.

“I want to know what happened, specifically, when you _died_, Rey.”

She blinked, surprised. “What do you mean?”

“What stopped you from fading?”

It took her a moment to realize what he meant.

“When a Jedi dies, they become one with the Force,” Luke continued. “You know that I did. My sister did. You saw Ben fade away in front of you-” Rey winced. “-and yet, you did not.”

It wasn’t something that Rey had considered. “I’m not entirely sure,” she admitted. “Isn’t it because I haven’t been trained how to become one with the Force?” Rey offered, remembering something. “Leia once mentioned-”

“Yes, yes, you have to learn, but this is something more than that, Rey,” Luke cut in. Their gazes met. “Leia had begun teaching you how, even if it wasn’t explicitly. You know more than you think. That, combined with the knowledge you inherited from Ben through your Force bond, should have been enough. Your connection with the Force is frighteningly strong, even if it is not fully honed.”

Rey didn’t know how to respond to this info.

“Something held you back, Rey,” he said, his words more gentle. “Something prevented you from melding into the Force. And right now, you need to remember whatever it was that you experienced between the time that you died and when Ben revived you.”


End file.
